Titanium
by The Illusionest
Summary: I am titanium. No matter what the military throws at me, I will do what I've come to do. Even if that involves teaming up with a military dog. I am still titanium. I am still the Suffocation Alchemist. AlxOC
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **_Hey you guys! This is The Illusionist! First off, there are a few things I need to get clear about some other stories of mine (If you haven't read any of my other stories, feel free to ignore this. )Out in Wonderland is still being worked on. My cousin and I both are still writing hard on it, but there are some things later on in the story that we realized needed some work, so we wanted to get all of that worked out before we continue posting, so don't worry, it's just under a bit of maintenance. For my Let it Die fans, it's been awhile since I updated it and I'm not sure when I can get back to it. In my time away from it, I've lost my journal that holds all of my Let it Die information. I've just recently gotten a hold of it again. So you can expect Let it Die to be continued shortly. As for Third Wheel, I really don't know what I'm doing with that yet, I had so much planned for it but I lost interest. I might go back to it, might not. And Magic of Sinnoh is questionable. _

_Sorry 'bout that guys, just wanted to get that out there!_

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist/Brotherhood! I do not own any of the original characters. They belong to their rightful owners. I do however own Kylie, her brother, and the other original characters who I will claim as they come into the story.  
_

* * *

_**Titanium **_

_By: The Illusionist _

* * *

"_Is there a chance,_

_A fragment of light,_

_At the end of the the tunnel,_

_a reason to fight?_

_Is there a chance,_

_You may change your mind?_

_Or are we ashes and wine?"_

_- **Ashes & Wine by A Fine Frenzy**_

* * *

"Would you just stay in your damn seat?" my much older, step brother said as a vein in his head became very obvious.

I crossed my arms and legs, leaning back against the couch as I chewed on the inside of my cheek. "Your little lap dogs are late. Can't help it if I get a little anxious." I shrugged and smiled inwardly as his vein pulsed.

"I never said they'd be here at exactly four. I said their train arrived at four. Major Armstrong is bringing them. Try to be a little more patient," he said as he continued to write on one of the many papers piling up on his desk.

I puffed my cheeks out and sent my attention to the blond woman leaning over my step-brother's shoulder. "Is he always this stressed?" I asked as the pen in his hand made a cracking sound.

"Not usually," came her reply, "But he doesn't usually work so intently either," this earned her a glare from him.

I let out a short, confident laugh and grinned. "Showing off in front of your sister, Roy?" I asked.

This time, his pen actually broke, and he looked up at me with quite a serious and angry face. "You're not my sister, Kylie!" he shouted, "If anything, you're a step cousin."

I raised my brow and put my arms against the back of the couch, stretching my legs out. "I prefer to think of you as a brother. Cousin Roy just makes us sound so far apart."

"_Step_ cousin," he corrected me, picking up another pen and beginning to write again.

"That's even worse," I whined, leaning my head back to stare at the boring, white ceiling. "Who exactly are you dumping me on anyway?"

"The only kid I know who deserves to be dumped with you," he said just as someone knocked on the door. "And that just might be them now."

The door opened to reveal a figure that I had seen a multitude of times, never in person, but seen none-the-less. They weren't very tall, but I knew better than to let that mean much in my judgement of them. Despite the fact that their hair was long, blonde, and braided, it was plainly obvious that they were a boy. He appeared to be having an argument with one of, if not both of, the two who entered with him.

The one to his left, who had entered slightly before him, made quite the statement with his large, metal, suit of armor. I assumed he was a boy anyway, as I couldn't imagine any girl flaunting something of the sort. Aside from the fact that the suit was fairly bulky, there wasn't too much about it that was distinct, though that little ribbon of white hair at the top of the helmet did strike me as odd.

The door was closed by a person I had become quite familiar with during the course of the week. In times when my step-brother, or _step-cousin,_ needed the assistance of his blond assistant, Riza Hawkeye, I would be stuck with the large man known widely as Major Armstrong. Thankfully, he was dressed in his military uniform, instead of being shirtless as he'd done one too many times.

"Fullmetal," cousin Roy caught my attention as he stood, staring intently at the trio as they entered. "Thank you for bringing them, Major Armstrong, you've been a great help this past week."

At the statement I couldn't help but snort. "Are you _serious_ cousin Roy?" I asked, "All you've had him do this week is babysit me! Which, for your information, is highly unnecessary."

All I got in response was a glare as the boy and the suit of armor positioned themselves on the couch across from me. Major Armstrong, claiming to have some work of his own to do, took his leave, accompanied by Miss Hawkeye, before Roy sat back down in his chair.

"So Colonel, what kind of mission have you dragged us back into Central for this time?" the short one said, leaning back in a position similar to mine. "And what's the girl for?"

I felt a vein in my own head become slightly irritated but managed a very unwelcoming smile. "'The girl' has a name," I said, "and I was just wondering the same? What's the little dwarf doing here?"

A fire lit in the kid's eyes, but just as he was about to blow, Roy spoke up. "This girl is Kylie. And for the next six months, she's_ your_ responsibility."

The both of us shot up from our seats, both of our voices mixing into the word 'what'. "Roy, you can't be serious? This kid is no older than I am."

"This _kid _is a certified State Alchemist," Roy rebutted, "and _your_ only chance of taking that test."

I shrunk back and clenched my hands into fists. "You want to be a State Alchemist. This is a perfect chance for you to train with one of our best," he said, "And probably the only one who'd be able to put up with you."

"So, she's like, my apprentice?" the kid asked, and I turned my body to face him.

"You're sending me to train with the Fullmetal Alchemist?" I asked, crossing my arms, "Why?"

"All you've done since becoming a part of this family was go on and on about becoming a State Alchemist. Before I even consider letting a kid like you join the military, you need to at least learn the basics. And if you can't handle six months with Fullmetal, then there's no way you can be a State Alchemist." he said, leaning back in his chair.

"Colonel, is it really a good idea for her to come with us? What about our missions?" the boy in the suit of armor asked as I sat back down on the red couch.

"Yes, about that. We won't be sending you on any missions that we deem too dangerous, and though she might not look like much, Kylie is very capable of handling herself when she's in a tight spot," Roy said, genuinely shocking me. It wasn't very often that he said anything positive that concerned me.

"But what about our personal missions?" the Fullmetal Alchemist asked, his face a mix of anger and anxiety.

A loud sigh came from Roy before he spoke, "Those can still be carried out. But please use some discretion, Fullmetal."

I sighed and closed my eyes, rubbing my index finger against my temple. "Look, I don't wanna be a burden on anyone. If I'm gonna get in the way, you're better off just shipping me back to Miss Mustang and I'll find another way to get into the military."

"That won't be necessary, Kylie," Roy said, almost before I could finish my sentence, "Fullmetal will have no problems with having you accompany him, right Fullmetal?"

The kid rubbed his neck nervously and shrugged his shoulders. "I guess not, Colonel," then he turned to me, pointing one of his gloved fingers at me, "but you better be able to keep up!"

"Don't worry about me, shrimp," I said, pushing myself to my feet, "it can't be too hard to keep up with those short, little legs."

He shook his fist angrily at me before banging it on the table. "Who are you calling so small you could squish him under your pinkie toe?" he shouted, glaring intently at me.

"Fullmetal, that is not what she-" I put my hand up to silence Roy.

"No, no, that's exactly what I meant," I said as I crossed my arms and smirked at him.

The kid looked at me as if he were ready to attack me, but was restrained by the boy in the armor. "Brother, don't," he said to the struggling kid.

"It's best to listen to your brother, Fullmetal. I don't want any harm coming to her," Roy said, sounding just as disinterested in the events as he was with paperwork.

"But Colonel!" I tuned out just as the Fullmetal Alchemist started going on another rampage, this time directed towards Roy instead of me.

I soon came to the decision that I didn't particularly want to stand and listen to the two bickering males, so I gave a quick, two fingered salute towards them before heading towards the door. I was stopped, however, just before I could twist the handle. Looking over my right shoulder, I saw the suit of armor standing behind me with a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm really sorry about my brother. He's very sensitive about his height," aside from the two words to his brother a few minutes ago, this was the most I'd heard from his voice, and he sounded more like a kid than the other one.

I smiled at him and turned to lean my back against the door. "Naw, no biggie. It's nice to see someone get so worked up over something so trivial. Really brightens the day up," I said, "By the way, who are you exactly?"

"Me?" he asked, pointing to himself, "I'm Alphonse, Ed's younger brother."

"Younger brother?" I asked, giggling softly to myself, "Sure, why not? I'm Kylie Williams."

I heard a crash coming from behind Al and craned my neck to check it out. Somehow, Ed had wound up on the ground, surrounded and covered by many of Roy's papers. I sighed and shook my head, turning to reach for the handle again.

"Wait, where are you going?" Al asked me.

"Dunno," I said, shrugging, "Wander around the halls maybe. Not much else can be done around this place unless you're a State Alchemist."

* * *

I had spent a few minutes just wandering around, getting odd looks from the Alchemists as I did so, before I realized that Al had followed me out. Even with his company, my trip around the building wasn't any more exciting or any more of a success. However, after a little while, we came across Major Armstrong. Thankfully, our visit got cut short by the short man himself, insisting that it was time to go.

As we headed back towards the hotel which Ed and Al were staying at, Ed asked me multiple times why I was following them. Most of the time I just shrugged it off, saying there really wasn't anywhere else for me to go. Though, by the time we reached their room, I was fairly certain that Ed was tired of my nonchalant answers.

"Dammit Kylie, you can go away now!" Ed said, throwing his arms in the air.

"Actually, I can't," I said, rolling my eyes, "From today onwards, I'm suppose to be staying with the Fullmetal Alchemist. I have nowhere else to go."

"What about your stuff?" Al asked, and I glanced up in his direction.

"I don't have much stuff. But what I do have, Armstrong and Roy moved from my room this morning. I'm guessing it's inside." I told them and took a step away from the door. "Now, are you gonna let us in or not pipsqueak?"

* * *

Within the next hour or so, as the three of us settled into the room, I'd set Ed on at least seven rants regarding his height. After about two or three though, Al stopped trying to calm his brother down and just let him ride his anger out. At some point, the room became quiet as we each immersed ourselves in our own activities. Ed had settled upon kicking his legs up and down on the bed as he lay reading some book. Al on the other hand was sitting alone in a corner, seemingly making some kind of craft. All the while, I sat in the small entrance that separated the living room section of the room from the bedroom, going through my small suitcase of stuff.

I smiled excitedly when I pulled out the two, pink, fingerless gloves that Roy had insisted I remove before meeting my living partner for the next six months. With a squeal, I put them on, glad that I finally had such an important accessory back.

"Can you keep it down? And stop looking at those gloves like you're in love with them," Ed's voice came from the bedroom side of the room, and I stuck my tongue out at him.

"For your information, these are not just gloves," I said, "These are how I do my alchemy," I flipped up my palms to reveal two transmutation circles, one on each palm. "It takes a few tries for me to draw a transmutation circle. I figured having one premade would be easier."

"Oh yeah?" Ed asked, stopping his kicking to sit on the edge of the bed. "Are you any good with alchemy?"

Taking off my baby blue jacket I gave a slight shrug. "Basic alchemy? I understand the fundamentals. I haven't been able to put them to any use yet though," I said, "but I guess that's why you're my teacher."

It was silent for a minute as Ed got up and walked over to me. I kept my eyes to my lap, where my hands now rested, as opposed to watching the kid as he put himself on the ground in front of me.

"Is the Colonel really your cousin?" he asked, and I looked at him with a shocked expression. That was the last thing I expected anyone to ask.

"Sort of and sort of not," I said after I recovered, "His aunt adopted me about half a year ago. So I'd be more of a _step_ cousin, but it's all the same to me."

He didn't really acknowledge my answer for a minute or two, and I was beginning to believe that was the end of the discussion. However, he managed to ask me another question after the brief silence.

"Adopted? Where are your parents?" he asked, his voice a little uneasy.

I let out a loud sigh but gave a small laugh anyway. "What's with the Q & A, kid?" I asked.

"Just getting to know my new partner," he answered, "Now seriously. What happened?" as he spoke, I heard Al's footsteps draw closer until they stopped, and he sat beside his brother.

I put my hands against the floor and blew out a huff of air. "They died in an accident when I was five. I've been in and out of foster homes ever since. That's all there is to it."

"Why the sudden interest in the military?" this time it was Al who asked the question.

"For starters, Al, it's not so sudden," I answered, biting down on my lip, "I made up my mind three years ago, when I was twelve, that I had to do something about the military. It wasn't until a year ago that I realized, the only way for me to do that was to join it."

"If you can't even do basic alchemy, how did you expect to pass the test?" Ed asked, and I glared at him.

"I just figured I'd cross that bridge when I came to it," I mumbled and stood up, dusting off my pants, the gray dust leaving little marks on the white material.

"Life doesn't work that way, Kylie," Ed said as he himself stood, followed by his brother.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, walking to the blue sofa that was stationed in the middle of the living room. "It usually does for me," I replied, "Al, will you check the closet for an extra blanket?"

When Al came back, he handed me a small, blue blanket that was probably a little too small to cover all of me if I were to lay straight. "Thanks," I said and smiled at him, making a 'shooing' motion with my hands towards Ed, "You can go back to your bed now. I wanna try to get some sleep."

"Sleep?" Ed asked, looking at the clock on the wall, "It's only eight."

"Yeah, well, knowing Roy, he'll have a mission ready for us fairly early. I'd like to be well rested for it," I answered, settling onto the couch.

"She's got a point, brother," Al said.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Enjoy your nap," Ed's voice faded a little as he walked back towards the bedroom half of the room.

With Ed on the other side of the room, I sighed in relief and reached to pull my brown hair out of its two messy pigtails. I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to stop it from poofing out. During my final try of keeping it down, I looked over my shoulder to see that Al was still standing there.

"Doesn't it get hot in there?" I asked him. "Maybe you should take it off."

"Oh, yeah, I'll think about that," he answered nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

With that, he walked back to his brother's side of the room while I spread out on the couch. A yawn fought its way into the open as I rested my head on one of the couch pillows. The room stayed quiet as neither of the boys uttered a word at that point, not even to each other, and I quickly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

I bolted up from the couch, sweat dripping hurriedly down my body. Looking around, I realized the room no longer held the light from before, as both the room's light and the sun's natural light had been turned off. I held my right hand tightly to my chest, trying desperately to quiet down my sobs and gasps for air. I quickly smacked my palms together, waiting until a little whitish blue light emitted from them before holding them up to my mouth and taking in a deep breath.

The burning sensation in my lungs lightened until only quiet sobs were what remained. I shook my hands and then wiped one across my eyes, falling back onto the couch immediately. I was no stranger to the nightmares that plagued me night by night, but that never stopped me from hoping I could have a moment of peace. My stomach churned and I gripped it with my hand, biting back anymore tears and sobs that were still fighting to get out.

"Is everything alright, Kylie?" I stiffened at Al's voice and sat back up, immediately choking on the air. "Kylie!"

I held my hand up and took several long, deep breaths before holding my hand over my heart. "I'm fine, Al," I told him, my voice hoarse from the lack of air, "What are you doing up?"

"I heard you scream," he said, "I'm surprised you didn't wake brother up."

"Sorry," I said, furrowing my brows, "I hadn't realized I'd screamed." I scooted my legs over the edge of the couch, making room as Al sat down beside me.

"Did you use alchemy a few minutes ago?" he asked me after a moment of silence.

I smiled softly and nodded, leaning back against the couch. "Yeah, I did."

"What did you do? I didn't see you create anything." Al's voice sounded thoroughly confused, yet all I could do was giggle.

"I can't give you all my secrets in one day, now can I, Alphonse?" I laughed and closed my eyes, still fairly tired from my nightmare.

"Can I ask you a question?" Al asked in a timid voice.

A dry laugh came from my throat, and I nodded weakly. "Sure."

"What sparked your interest in the military?" he asked.

I stared into the black pit of my eyelids, letting the silence carry on as Al fidgeted with his fingers. "I'm looking for someone," I said during a long exhale of breath.

I assumed that he would ask who I was looking for, but all he did was give a hum of approval and the silence stretched on once more. I slowly felt myself slipping farther and farther out of consciousness, though I could've sworn I'd heard Al mutter something along the lines of, 'tell her tomorrow.'

* * *

"No way," I shouted, lifting up Al's armor head, "there's really nothing in there."

"Ah, Kylie, my head! Could you please give that back?" Al asked, reaching his hands up to grab his head back.

"Sorry Alphonse, here you go," I said, laughing nervously and putting his head back in place.

"Well you're taking this rather calmly. And unsympathetically." Ed murmured, crossing his arms as I inspected Al's armor.

"I was sympathetic at the beginning," I retorted, trying not to sound heartless, "But now I'm more interested in the fact that Al is here. . . but not here either."

"Of all the parts of the story, _that_ is what interests you the most?" Ed asked, "Not that Al's body isn't important, but normal people would focus on the fact that we tried to transmute our mother."

"I guess I'm not normal," I said, shrugging and knocking lightly on the chest of Al's armor.

"That's an understatement," Ed said, tapping his foot impatiently, "Now can you stop ogling my brother so we can get to Colonel Mustang before he decides to bite our heads off?" he shouted.

I turned to Ed and crossed my arms, sticking my bottom lip out. "Al, your brother is being mean to me," I pouted, sitting on Al's leg and puffing my cheeks out.

Ed then started ranting and yelling on about all the things he already disliked about me, while I just sat there and hugged his brother, throwing fuel onto the fire. Al didn't do much to help, though I doubted he could have done anything, as everything he said involved the words 'please' and 'brother' both of which just earned him a 'shut up Al' from his older sibling.

That was an odd environment for me, being around people my own age, laughing and genuinely enjoying the time together. It'd been years since I'd had that kind of company, where I could feel light hearted without worrying about what the others were saying behind my back. Despite the fact that we'd only known each other a total of a few hours, something just seemed to click. Something in me just begged for me to trust them, and they seemed to be fairly comfortable with me as well.

"Are you listening to me?" Ed's voice shook me out of my current state of mind, but all I could do was continue to laugh.

"Brother's right, we should get going," Al said, and I nodded, standing and saluting to the boys.

"Shall we go, sirs?" I asked, heading for the door and grabbing my coat, "C'mon. The turtle may beat the hare in the race, but he doesn't stand a chance against Cousin Roy's fury!"

A thought crossed my mind that morning. A thought that hadn't entered my head in such a long time.

_Perhaps there is a light at the end of the tunnel._

* * *

**Author's Note: **_So, my darlings, I hope you enjoyed the introduction to this little FMA/B Story. Got any questions? Ask 'em. if I can answer I will. If you've got a comment, leave it. if you liked it tell me. If you didn't, tell me why. I'm open to all kinds of reviews. Wanna point out some mistakes? Go ahead, it'll help me be a better writer. Got something nasty to say and nothing helpful to add? Please keep it to yourself. The only thing I won't tolerate is people being rude just for the sake of doing so. If you didn't like it, it doesn't help anyone for you to just go on being an ass. Like I said, if you didn't like it, tell me why. That's all I ask. And now, I leave you for the time being._


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors Note: **_Hey guys, thanks for waiting so long for chapter two! I apologize for the wait. My mother had surgery last Thursday and things have been a bit hectic around my house. In addition, my keys have been a bit sticky and haven't worked quite right recently. I wanted to point out to you guys while I had it on my mind, that my inspiration for writing an FMA fanfic came from reading a fanfic called 'Different' by Nayru Elric. You really should read it if you haven't already. Also, any simililarities between the two are completely accidental! So please, no killy me xD Also, I did my research on the city in this chapter, but it may not be perfect. I couldn't find a whole lot of information on it, so I hope nothing is too messed up. Please, enjoy anyway_

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist/Brotherhood or any of its cannon characters. I do however own Kylie, Carter, Major Owsen, and all Creta military officers & West City officers, though I do not own West City or Creta themselves._

* * *

**Titanium**

_Chapter 2_

* * *

My current predicament wasn't one I much enjoyed, what with being on a large, moving vehicle crowded with people and all. The window beside my seat displayed the vast water below us and the populated cities in the distance, both of which I wished were in opposite places. A spinning sensation in my head caused me to rest my forehead against my knees, which were pulled up to my chest, and take in several breaths of the cold air that flew in through the open window.

"Are you alright, Kylie?" Al asked me from his seat beside his brother, who was directly across from me.

I managed a quick nod of my head as I tried to control my breathing, squeezing my eyes shut as I did so. I would once and awhile peek one of them towards the window, to see if perhaps the tracks were on solid ground again as apposed to being stationed above the water. Alas, no matter how I looked, that never seemed to be the case, and it felt as if this line of dangling track would continue on forever. Yes, it felt that way indeed.

"Al," I called, swallowing the feeling in the pit of my stomach that was dying to come out, "would you be mad if I burrowed your head?"

I heard Al's armor move, and I assumed it had to do with the oddness of my question. "What for?" he asked, and I could hear the worry he was straining to keep down.

"I think I might be sick." I mumbled, wrapping my arms around my legs and rocking gently in my seat. If we weren't still traveling across the water I might have been able to lean out the window, but as that wasn't the case, I knew it wasn't an option to do so.

"Hey, what are you thinking? My brother's head isn't a toilet you know," Ed's voice became loud and I was quite sure he wasn't in his seat anymore, but I didn't pay much mind to that.

A groan came from my throat and I hugged my legs tighter, feeling two little streams leaking from the corners of my eyes. Both boys became quiet all of a sudden, yet I still heard a very soft noise of which I couldn't place its source. It took me a moment to realize that the noise was coming from myself, a soft set of whimpers that grew louder as the time increased.

"Brother, I think something is really wrong with her," I heard Al say, and I did my best at giving him a grunt of approval.

Ed made some kind of noise himself, one of slight detest, but it was squashed by the sound of metal moving. The movement continued on for only a second as few steps were needed to be made until the seat beside me had become occupied.

"I can't really give you my head," Al's voice said as a hand started rubbing small circles on my back, "but is there anything else brother or I could do for you?"

Ed didn't seem too happy with his brother by offering his assistance as well, but he kept his protest largely to himself. I, on the other hand, gave no effort in masking what was on my mind at the moment.

"Unless you can get us on solid ground and make this train stop moving, I don't think so," I replied, "but thanks, Alphonse," I lifted my head a little to give him a smile, but that just made the feeling in my stomach come lurching back up.

I was up and out of my seat without saying another word to either boy, running between different cars until I found one towards the back that was completely vacant of any persons. Once there, I ended up crouching between two rows of seats, doing everything in my power to keep my eyes anywhere but towards the windows.

It was a few minutes before I heard the rushing of the wind against the metal door, indicating that someone was crossing over into the car. I didn't look up though, as the cold, metallic feel of car against my cheek was just too inviting to pass up, even for curiosities sake. As the footsteps grew closer, I realized that they were too light to be Al's, but by the slightly rougher step of one foot, I deducted that it was likely Ed, though I didn't assume it'd be anyone else aside from one of the two.

The footsteps would stop for a second every once in awhile, but after a moment they ceased all together and I heard a grunt of annoyance. "What the hell are you doing?" I heard Ed ask, but I only gave my own grunt as a reply. His footsteps came just a little bit closer and stopped again as Ed took a seat beside the one that I was facing.

"Considering what you said to Al, you either have Acrophobia or Aquaphobia. I'm hoping it isn't the latter," he said and I opened my eyes to look over at him.

"I have no problem with heights," I told him, "I have an issue with lack of land and large amounts of liquids."

In his obvious frustration, he groaned and leaned his right arm against his leg, holding his cheek in his palm. "I don't understand what you're so freaked out about."

I sat up a bit straighter and rubbed my hands against my eyes, attempting to explain the situation. "I am uncomfortable away from solid land. I am perfectly fine with water as long as there is land within a half mile radius," then as an afterthought I added, "and I'm a tad bit claustrophobic."

Ed didn't speak again for awhile, looking out the window as I slowly started to relax against the side of the car. My fear was slightly irrational, I assumed, but it wasn't something I had much control over.

"We should get back to Al before he comes searching for us," said Ed as he stood up from his seat.

I mentally cursed at him, suggesting that we get up and move just as I start to settle into a state of comfort. I did understand, however, his point about Al. Even I could tell that Al was a worrier, despite the measly twenty hours together. I ended up having to weigh the pros and cons of the situation. On one hand, getting up and moving about might trigger my irrational fears again, and thus might make me sick. On the other hand, not at least attempting to make it through the ride in my designated car with Ed and Al might cause unnecessary worrying on a little boy's part. Somehow, the former seemed like the bigger bargain.

However, I ended up following Ed back to Al anyway, mumbling curses about how having a train drive over water for such a long period of time was a huge waste. Once we got back though, Ed gladly pointed out that the tracks were planted firmly on the ground again. Even with the water still fairly visible, the fact that there was solid ground below us was enough to calm me down. I even became slightly happy upon hearing that we would be reaching West City soon and that Ed wasn't going to mention my fear to Al.

* * *

It would have been an understatement to say that I was elated when the train finally came to a stop and let us all pour out of its holes. There was definitely a huge difference between knowing the ground was right below and actually feeling it. There weren't quite as many people as I thought there'd be, but I assumed that was to be expected. Who exactly would want to go to a place that was constantly at war? Speaking of which. . .

"Ed? Al? Roy said he wasn't going to send us on any missions he deemed 'too dangerous', right?" I asked, receiving a nod from each boy, "That's what I thought. So could one of you explain to me . . . what about sending us on a mission to a place that's in the middle of a _war _isn't 'too dangerous'?"

"I'm not sure you could call this place 'at war', Kylie," Ed said, letting his hands rest in the pockets of his red coat, "Seems more like guerrilla warfare to me."

"There's still 'war' in the name," I corrected him as we started moving into the city itself and away from the train station.

We weren't supposed to wander too far off from the station since the head Military officer was going to meet up with us shortly after our arrival, but I wasn't exactly known for patience being a virtue of mine. The streets weren't too heavily populated, and there didn't seem to be any sign of the warfare taking place currently, but even I knew that didn't mean much. We stopped just outside the train station as Ed observed the people wandering about, probably trying to assess the situation, which seemed rather impossible given the lack of activity currently.

"Hey Al, can you brief me on the mission again?" I asked him as he came up beside me.

"In the last couple of weeks, Creta has downsized its attacks on West City. Within that time frame, several military officers have gone missing. West City authorities have reason to believe Creta soldiers have taken them captive, but don't wish to blindly bombard them. With the time they've spent analyzing and planning a solution to the situation, another military officer, along with his seven year old son were taken captive a few days ago. West City enlisted the help of Central in hopes of bringing the soldiers and the little boy home safely," Al replied.

I gave him a nod to indicate that I understood his words, but at the same time, I couldn't hold back my laugh. "Alphonse, did you memorize the mission sheet?" I asked him, raising my brow.

"To be fair, Kylie," he started, "You _have _asked me about it seven times since this morning," if he had a body, I could almost guarantee he would have given me the most innocent teasing look he knew.

In the end, I just laughed. I laughed harder than I had in quite a while. Both Ed and Al turned to me, expressions completely different from each other. Ed looked on in a state of shock. Al ended up laughing right along with me, and when he stopped long before I did, I knew we really had to get back to work, all joking aside.

* * *

We didn't end up waiting too awfully long, but we were met by a lower ranked officer as opposed to the Major who we supposed to meet. We were told that he would be waiting for us at the West City Military office, and the lackey was kind enough to escort us there without a problem. Of course, it wasn't getting there that held the problem, it was what happened after we had arrived.

"You want to _what_?" Ed asked, slamming his hands down on the table. "Why the hell would you even _consider_ something like that?"

We'd probably been in the office for roughly twenty minutes, and up until the current point, everyone seemed to be on the same page. We all agreed that we needed to come up with a plan to get those who had been kidnapped out of enemy territory as soon as humanly possible. We even all agreed that the most effective way to do so would be have a trained officer, with an escape plan in mind, captured as well. That had been the last page before the Major and Ed had switched books completely.

"They may be military from another country, but even _they_ must have heard of the Fullmetal Alchemist and his armored companion," the Major said, trying to explain his case to Ed, "Even if you _are _valuable to them, they'd never risk the trouble. They want to capture officers who are both important to the military and who won't be too difficult to detain."

It was obvious that Ed understood his point, but he didn't budge from his side of the argument. "I understand that, sir, but this is too dangerous of a mission to send an inexperienced officer into," he glanced over his shoulder and sent me a hard look, "Also, give note to the fact that she _isn't_ a State Alchemist. She's only an Alchemist in training."

I completely understood and agreed with Ed's argument. I was in no way a State Alchemist, nor was I of any asset to the military. As stated earlier, I also believed that sending me out into a war was a mistake on Roy's part, but knowing him, he'd never admit to that kind of mistake. Considering we had to follow through with the current situation, I gave thought to the Major's idea as well. I could comprehend where his thought process was coming from. I was in no way a name the opposing country would recognize, and I didn't look like I posed much of a threat. That, however, left me with my own question.

"Major Owsen, if you were to pass me off as some unknown military officer, why would they want to kidnap me? If I'm so unknown, how would it benefit them?" I asked, receiving a relieved look from Ed.

"That's where the Fullmetal Alchemist comes in handy," Major Owsen said, "If they see you around town with him, they'll think you're someone important, if not to the military, at least to the boy."

Though I got the gist of what he meant, I had a feeling it still wasn't enough for Edward. I was, of course, right, but I was surprised to see that it wasn't Ed who spoke up next. It was Al.

"I have to agree with my brother, Major. This is Kylie's first mission in her training, and it does sound pretty dangerous. Couldn't we just send in one of your soldiers?" he asked.

At this, the Major shook his head. "I'm afraid not boys. They know my soldiers inside and out. We couldn't use this plan on one of them. We have no idea which ones are on their target list, and using a hand-picked, unknown person is the only option we have for this plan to work."

"Then think of a new plan," Ed said, sitting back down on the chair provided for him and crossing his arms. "Kylie isn't doing this."

I wasn't sure why, but some part of me resented Ed for that statement. I knew he was only trying to protect me, but something in me didn't want protection, it wanted respect. If I wanted to advance in my goal in becoming a State Alchemist, I needed to show everyone that I could handle myself, and that included showing Ed I could do this mission.

"I'll do it, Major," I said, trying my best to stand straighter and ignore the shocked expressions I was getting from those in the room.

"Are you crazy, Kylie?" Ed asked, back on his feet.

"Brother's right," Al said at the first sign of protest by me, "This is too dangerous."

I looked from Ed to Al and then to the Major. "They need my help. If this were just a mission to save a bunch of grown men, I wouldn't argue with either of you. But there is a little boy on the line here, and I don't think we have time to be wracking our brains for a new plan when we have a perfectly operable one on the table now."

Major Owsen gave me a smile and a proud glance, which contrasted the slightly angered look I knew Ed was giving me and the worried look I was fairly certain Al was sending my way. Somehow, I think Ed and Al both knew that trying to talk me out of this now would be futile, as they both kept quiet when the Major started discussing the details of the plan.

* * *

The boys and I spent the majority of the day talking to the soldiers that were stationed around town. Major Owsen knew Creta had spies that listened in on the soldiers, so he gave us a rundown of the kind of comments we should make. Ed and Al made sure to note to each officer that I was 'a very promising Alchemist who'd been training in solitude for the past three years.' They also made comments on how I was very talented at breaking and entering, as I was trained to be a spy used against enemy forces.

Aside from a select few, almost none of the West City soldiers were in on the plan and likely believed the story the boys told. According to the Major most of the Creta soldiers weren't very good at spotting out lies, but were very good at gossiping, which would help our case. If they heard about me, there was no doubt they'd go telling the rest of their soldiers, and that was just what we needed.

The sun had set by the time we made it back to the room Major Owsen had set up for us. As soon as we got inside, Ed plopped down on the couch and threw his arm over his eyes. He had to have been exhausted after the events of the day since him and Al did most of the work. All I did was smile, say my name, shake the soldier's hands, and let them know I would do everything in my power to bring the captured soldiers and the boy home. Of course, all of my work would come tomorrow, after getting captured. I had alluded to the Major that, with the help of the transmutation circles on my glove, I would have no problems when it came time to make the big escape. Though Ed and Al knew better.

Speaking of my gloves, they were currently in Major Owsen's office being tampered with. They were encrypting some kind of listening device into my gloves so that I could make contact with them once inside. They said I'd get them back in the morning, but I was still nervous about spending a night without them. I always need them at random times, and I didn't want to take the chance of needing them tonight, but this was the only way the plan could work.

I hadn't realized I'd spaced out until Al came over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. Ever since we'd come in, I'd been standing against the door frame, apparently just gazing about the room. I smiled towards Al and leaned my head back against the wall.

"You don't have to go through with this, Kylie," Al said sympathetically.

"Yeah, I do," I groaned, yawning, "and I need some sleep to do it," I gave Al another weak smile before stretching my arms and walking towards the bedroom.

As I passed by the couch, I could tell that Ed had long since been asleep. I assumed he'd fallen asleep right after he'd hit the couch, but I wasn't sure how long I stood staring off into space, so I couldn't exactly say. Looking back, I saw Al sit in the chair opposite Ed, and I felt a bit sorry for him. From what I'd been told, he didn't exactly sleep, and I could only imagine how lonely that had to be.

Major Owsen had set us up with two 'bedrooms' but it was really just one bedroom connected to the living room. The bedroom had a wall through the center that left just enough space to walk between the two halves of the actual room. No one occupied the other side since Ed had decided to sleep on the couch, probably before he realized there were two beds.

Before settling into the room, I had taken a quick shower, since walking around West City caused quite a bit of sweat to come about during the day. Now, I was sitting in front of the dresser mirror, brushing through my hair, watching the shades of brown as they slid through the brush. On most nights I crashed long before planning my own sleep, but tonight my actions were premeditated. I'd changed into a pink, flannel nightgown that I had almost long since forgotten about, and was in the process of wrapping my hair in its normal loose pigtails before crawling into bed.

I'd almost say looking in the mirror gave me comfort, and to an extent, it did. The mirror somehow gave me reassurance as I saw the person I was looking back at me. Some may say, looking at my reflection, that I looked frail, but it didn't seem that way to me. Looking at myself, nothing about me seemed weak. Compared to the face I used to see, three years ago, words like 'weak' and 'frail' were as far off base as one could get.

Seeing the strong yet twisted me reminded me of a time before I was the way I was. It reminded me of the me that lived at the Orphanage. And it reminded me of my reason for doing what I do.

* * *

"_Carter, you're going easy on me," said a little girl with chocolate brown hair thrown into pigtails. She crossed her arms over her white karate uniform, huffing in annoyance. _

_Across from her, a boy with golden brown hair stood, wiping sweat off of his brow. "And what makes you say that, Cupcake?" he asked._

"_You called me 'cupcake' for starters," she whined, tugging on the white belt fastened around her uniform. "You always call me 'cupcake' when you joke around. And I'm being serious here!"_

_The boy, who couldn't have been more than ten, tugged on his own yellow belt before sitting comfortably on the ground. The sun was dangerously close to setting and most of the home's inhabitants had gone inside long ago. Both the boy and girl were covered in sweat and welcomed the shifting breeze that came with the day's status. _

_The girl walked up to the boy and sat across from him. "Really, Carter. I can't learn if you don't honestly try to teach me," she said, "Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean you have to treat me like every punch or kick will crack me."_

"_If I'm not careful that's exactly what'll happen," he replied, crossing his arms and giving her a stern look. "And it's not just that you're a girl. It's that you're a six-year-old girl. Most people frown upon ten-year-old boy beating up little girls."_

_This brought forth a pout from the girl. "I can hold my own, Carter. I may be a little girl, but I'm also you're sister. I've seen the same things you have. Been through the same things you have. We're strong together, that's what you always say. I'm not gonna break any easier than you, four years younger and a different gender or not."_

_The boy looked at the girl for several minutes in complete silence with a look of pure shock on his face. When he finally recovered, he gave her the most genuine, softest smile he knew, and reached out a hand to ruffle her hair._

"_You really are an old soul, Cupcake."_

* * *

The bed was warm and soft the next morning, which was surprising considering I didn't remember going to sleep. I did my morning ritual as slowly as possible, which I didn't realize until I'd left the bedroom and met up with the Elric brothers. Ed took it amongst himself to throw a mini-fit on the extended amount of time I took that morning. I was sort of happy to see Al jump to my defense, saying something about how he thought I might have had a nightmare. I made a mental note to ask him about where he came to that conclusion once this mission was finished.

As a day starter, we stopped by Major Owsen's office and picked up my gloves. It felt great to have them back, but to my dismay, I was ordered to keep them in the pocket of my jacket for now. If the Creta soldiers were to notice them during my capture, it was highly likely they would take them away and the plan would be void. The pocket I was keeping them in was hidden in the inside of my jacket with a zipper that kept it closed.

After that point, it was all a waiting game really. Major Owsen was sure the plan would work and that they would come after me. He was also fairly certain they'd do it when Ed and Al left my side, which might have been why I clinged to them longer than I should have. We'd decided to spend some time really checking out the town, but I couldn't bring myself to enjoy it. Worry and anxiety were building up in me over the intensity of the mission. Ed and Al both promised to get me out of there as soon as they could, and that at any sign of distress, they would hijack the place no matter what. I assured them that wouldn't be necessary, but Al had made up his mind to try to keep _m_y mind off of the matter.

It was well after noon by the time Ed decided to split from us. He insisted on Al coming with him, but something told me the younger Elric noticed my anxiety, as he was adamant on staying with me a little while longer. We didn't do much or talk much, though I had to give him points for trying. I honestly did try to hold up a conversation with him, but my mind just kept slipping out of it, and I eventually stopped trying. It wasn't until we stopped and sat on a bench outside of a noodle shop that he actually brought my slip of the mind to light.

"I know you're scared, Kylie, but brother and I _will _protect you," he reassured me as I sighed with my head in my hands.

"It's not just fear that's running me here, Al," I told him, looking up to watch the people walk about the street. "If I fail, Roy will yank me off this mission faster than I can ask for a second chance. Al, I _need_ this to go well."

"Does this have to do with the person you're looking for?" he asked me timidly.

I pulled my hand up to my mouth and rubbed my fingers against my lips. "It has everything to do with it," I mumbled, letting my hand slip to cover my eyes.

The air around us shifted and I turned to Al with my brows furrowed. "I'm sorry I can't comfort you much. Words can only go so far, but since they're all I can give. . ." his voice faded off and I couldn't fight back a smile.

"You try, Alphonse," I said, "That's more than what can be said about most people."

That was all that lasted in our conversation and a few minutes later, we parted ways. Al seemed a little reluctant to leave, knowing what would come when he did, but when we caught each other's eyes, he seemed to understand just how important this was and took his leave.

I was a little lonely at first as I weaved my way through town, bringing myself closer to the border. With the time that ticked slowly by I found my anxiety and worry fade away. It wasn't replaced by confidence or anything like that. The part of me that controlled my emotions just seemed to numb up, which wasn't uncommon in these types of cases. It was fairly normal for part of me to shut down when I got too overwhelmed.

I ended up stopping to rub the sun from my eyes when someone grabbed me from behind. Despite being prepared for this, my natural instinct was to fight back, which I did. I wrangled my arms and kicked my legs, twisting and turning in every direction to get them to let go. Panic fell over me when I felt my arms and legs both lock into place as a figure appeared before me. I didn't get more than a half second glance at them before a pressure on my forehead made me close my eyes and I blacked out.

* * *

When I came to, I was walking. Exactly how I was walking without being conscious I didn't know, but I was very aware of my company. There was a figure both in front of and behind me, and neither seemed to acknowledge my awakening. I pulled my hand up to wipe the crust from my eyes and found that my hands were held in some kind of metal contraption. I could move my hands up and down to an extent, but there was no way they were going anywhere else.

I didn't try to speak to either of the people leading me, but I did manage a look around. By the looks of the dirt covered walls, we were definitely underground. Every couple of feet I would notice what looked like air ducts that were likely connection to whatever was just above us to bring down air. I also saw metal bars along the left wall, will hollowed out space behind them, but it was much too dark for me to see anything inside. However, once we'd walked for a while longer, a low stream of lights hanging from the ceiling came to life, and when I dared to look towards the hollowed out Earth, I couldn't help but stop dead in my tracks, causing both figures to stop as well.

Behind the bars were people. They varied between ages and genders and there were more in the first short strip of ground than all the soldiers in West City. It was obvious the cities soldiers weren't the only people down here, but that left me with the question: Who were they? These people looked miserable. They looked terrified. And an even more terrifying thought struck me. They looked tired. And not the sleepy kind. The kind of tired that you passed out from. . . and never came out of.

Suddenly, this mission became much more dangerous. There was more to this than we initially thought. There was no way they were just kidnapping important soldiers to get back at West City for something. Half of these people were children and could no way play an important role in society. Creta was up to something much bigger than just a war with West City, and I was right in the middle of it.

A sudden panic filled me and I was gasping. My vision began to blur and I was fairly certain I had fallen against the wall. My throat had gone numb but my lungs were burning worse than ever. My instinct was to bring my hands up to my mouth, but I realized I wasn't wearing my gloves, and they were in a secret pocket I couldn't reach. I felt my heart rate pick up and closed my eyes as the figures drew closer. I tried desperately to get air into my lungs with no luck. Without the ability to breathe or my gloves to supply my fix, I couldn't keep myself conscious and soon enough was forced to sit back as the world around me faded away.

* * *

**Authors Note: **That's it for this chapter you guys! I hope you liked it! Please review! Until next time, Toodles~


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guuuuuys! Long time no see! Well, no read. Just a little FYI for you all, school started back three weeks ago (part of the delay of chapter 3, plus writers block and having my laptop shipped awaaaaay) so chapters will most likely come once a month. You might get two a month if your lucky!**

**I don't really have much to say except have fun with the looong chapter (about 11 pages on Google docs). I sat on it for so long under writer's block and then BOOM finished in 4 hours -_-**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST/BROTHERHOOD OR ANY CANNON CHARACTERS! I do own Kylie, Carter, Aria, Castile, and Madilyn. **

**One last little FYI: my youtube account, MissLoveProtector, has a trailer video for this fanfic, it's called "Titanium, a Fullmetal Alchemist Fanfic," so if you wanna look that up be my guest. I might link it on my profile later. Also, there are two pages on facebook. I WILL link those in the next few days. Just in case you wanna stay updated!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Titanium  
**

* * *

****_Chapter 3  
_

* * *

When I came to, I was a little groggy and confused to start with. I was certain that I should have been dead. That was my first thought. _Why am I still alive? _I couldn't quite remember exactly why I would have been dead, but my mind just registered the fact that I was supposed to be dead. My chest felt heavy, and it was hard to breathe, but at least I was breathing. My mind was reeling as recent events started coming back, and I was fighting to tell fiction from reality.

I knew who I was. _Kylie Marie Williams. _I knew how old I was. _15_. I knew my date of birth. _October 6th._ But I wasn't sure exactly where I was. I didn't know how I got there. I didn't know why my lungs were burning. And I couldn't remember what happened to me.

The fact that I was on a mission came back to me relatively quickly, but the mission itself just seemed to escape my grasp. I did, however, remember who my companions were. So when I opened my eyes and saw three people around me, none of which fit the descriptions of my teammates, my mind went into panic mode.

The one closest to me, who looked much too small to be a threat, put a hand on my arm as she spoke, "Please, don't be worried. There's no one here to harm you right now."

Even though her statement was made to calm me, I couldn't help but focus on the fact that it ended with 'right now' meaning there might be in the future. I didn't answer her, just observing my surroundings and the people in them. I seemed to be in a compartment of sorts, a square room made of dirt perhaps. It wasn't very large, but it fit the four of us with a little room to spare. There was what looked like iron bars blocking the entrance, and beyond them was a path of dirt that I couldn't see too far into.

I turned my attention to the little girl beside me, who couldn't have been more than ten. She had strawberry blond hair that had been placed into two braids, though strands of hair had been flung loose, and her bangs were messily pushed away from her forehead. Despite the fact that we were no way in a safe place, a soft smile remained intact on her face. Her eyes were a dark shade of green, but my mind could have made them seem darker due to the forest green sweater she was wearing. I could only barely see the baby blue shorts she had on since she was sitting on her knees.

Wincing, I pushed myself up enough so that my elbows were supporting the weight of my upper body. "Where are we?" I asked, closing my eyes to try to subdue the headache forming above the bridge of my nose.

"In the tunnels below Creta's central military building," the little girl replied.

I managed a smile and opened my eyes, inclining my head towards the girl. "I don't suppose you know how I got here?"

She shook her head slowly and her smile fell. "The guards brought you to this cell because you weren't breathing. I told them that even I couldn't do anything if you were dead. But . . . your heart was still beating. Very faintly I might add, but it was beating," she said.

All of a sudden, an image appeared in my head. I saw people, groups of people, and they looked ghostly, thin, with lifeless eyes. I felt my airway start to constrict again and slowed my breathing down, counting to ten. The muscles in my throat loosened up, and I almost fell onto my back into relief.

"Right," I said, "Those guards were taking me somewhere."

"I was curious about that," said a voice coming from the other end of the compartment, "You're an Amestrian, aren't you?"

I looked towards the voice, positive that it belonged to a male, but he sat in a corner where the light from the hall couldn't reach him, and I couldn't see his face. "By that, I assume you're a Creta citizen?" I asked, narrowing my eyes as if that might help me make out the person speaking to me.

The little girl beside me nodded her head, a faint smile returning to her face. "You're the second Amestrian that's been sent to us since we were brought down here," she said, folding her hands into her lap.

I observed her face and scooted back so my back was pressed against the wall, and I finished sitting up so the pressure wasn't constantly on my elbows. "About that. You mentioned that even _you,_" I pointed to the girl, "couldn't bring back someone who was dead. What does that mean?"

She clicked her tongue and then pursed her lips, as if she were considering her words. "I'm a Medical Alchemist," she said. "A fairly well-known one in Creta."

"But, you're like, ten," I said, trying my best not to sound offensive.

"Eleven," she corrected, inching closer to me. "Anyway, your airway had closed off. By the looks of it, you were only about two minutes without air, and while your heart should have been beating rapidly to make up for the lack of oxygen, it slowed down instead."

On instinct, I put my hand up to my chest and rubbed the spot where my heart was. "Yeah," I said, "it's always doing something irregular." I didn't particularly like it when people took notice of my heart's activity, and this was no exception.

"Well if you know it acts up, then you should go to a doctor," said the boy, who stood and walked over to us. "If you don't stop being careless, you'll get yourself killed. Today for example."

"Who are you anyway?" I asked as he sat down beside the girl.

He raised his brow at me and shrugged his shoulders. "Castile. And this is my little sister, Aria," he said, pointing a finger towards the girl.

Castile had green eyes a lot like his sister, though his looked much lighter, and his bangs nearly covered his left eye completely. His hair was quite a bit darker than hers, closer to auburn, and it barely reached passed his shoulders. He too wore his own sweater, but it wasn't green like Aria's. His sweater was red with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows and a pair of black pants that had been rolled up to his knees.

"Well _Castile,_ how exactly is your sister such a well-known Medical Alchemist? And what are you even doing down here?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"You're living on borrowed breath here, Sweetheart. You sure you wanna waste it on things that really don't concern you?" he asked, leaning forward a bit and smirking at me.

That struck a chord with me and I felt my eye twitch. I really didn't like it when people told me things weren't my business. "Actually, it _is _of my concern," I told him, "Any information regarding any or all inhabitants of these cells could be important and crucial to my mission."

"Mission? And what exactly would your mission be?" he asked.

Everything came back at me so fast; I had to grip the sides of my head with both hands, muttering words that _I_ couldn't even comprehend. After a minute, I let out a long held in breath and glared at Castile, sighing in annoyance. "My _mission_. . ." I stopped, choosing my words very carefully, "is to get my soldiers out of here."

That seemed to take him by surprise, and he took a minute or two to figure out his words. "You mean, you're not here to figure out what General Will's plan is? You're not here to save all these people?"

I was taken back a bit myself, but I didn't let my face show it. "_These people_ aren't my responsibility," I said, and the image from before flashed in my mind.

He looked down and scoffed, shaking his head. "I told you Aria," he said, "If our own country isn't going to save us, the neighboring one won't either."

"You listen here!" I shouted, "Don't go disrespecting my country. We don't have Intel into yours, so we don't know what's going on. _I'm here_ because several of our soldiers have gone missing and we believe Creta is behind the disappearances," I couldn't believe I was giving out information so easily to these people, but my gut told me hiding it would only cause more problems.

"You young people get really worked up over such trivial things," a new voice came that matched the timing of a rustle from the right side of the cell, making me avert my eyes from the annoying teen before me. "No matter what the girl's motives were for coming here, she's here now. So stop arguing over the _whys_ and start focusing on the _how_ we're going to handle the situation."

"Great," I muttered, "Who are_ you?_" suddenly, I was at a loss for energy.

"I happen to be Madilyn, a former Alchemist and head of the Creta Elemental Alchemy research facility," she said, pushing back her long, gray hair out of her matching stormy gray eyes. "And that _little girl_," she pointed to Aria, "is an Alchemy prodigy when it comes to the medical section."

Aria? This little girl was an Alchemy prodigy? In a way, I found that seriously hard to believe. However, by the way she talked about my heart, I couldn't completely ignore that she seemed to know what she was talking about. Though, something else came into my thought process. She said I was the second Amestrian to be brought to her. Why would they send anyone to this little girl?

I saw those soulless bodies once again in my mind and cringed. Those people would definitely need Aria's kind of help, but why would these soldiers give them that? If they were going to try saving them, then why would they put them in that condition to begin with?

"Uh oh. The wheels in that girl's head are rolling," Castile said, snapping me back to my current position.

"Kylie," I said, receiving a few confused glances. "My name is Kylie. Now you can stop calling me 'that girl'," I inclined my head towards Castile.

Castile's hands went up weakly in surrender before I continued. "Why would they send anyone here to Aria? What would be the purpose?"

"To save the strong people," Aria butted in just as I finished my sentence. "If the strong ones die, then they have no one left for their army."

Army? "What army?" I asked, tensing up a bit.

"General Will's army," Castile replied, leaning one knee up to rest his arm on. "General Will recently became head of the Creta military force, though most of us still address him as 'General'. No one on the outside has noticed, but he's planning something. We don't know what it is, but we've become a part of it."

I lifted my hand up to my forehead and rubbed my thumb and middle finger against my temples. "Why all these people though? And why let them get so . . . sick? I saw a pretty disturbing sight when they first brought me down here."

"So that's what it is," Castile said, much to my surprise, "You keep getting this look on your face like something's just terrified you. Now I have an idea for what it is," I ended up glaring at him, though I should have done so to myself, since I couldn't believe I had actually shown my horror externally.

"Can we focus on why they're letting these people get so sick and then send them to Aria to get better?" I asked, trying to shake off the image.

"They say they want strong soldiers, and they've only sent a handful to Aria for help," Castile put his chin in his palm. "I guess it seems kind of like a test. The weak die. The ones who are strong enough to last get medical help. From the only reliable source they have. Aria."

"How come you guys look like you're fairing okay?" I asked, folding my legs under me.

"Castile and I have only been here for about a week," Aria said, "Madilyn's only on her third day. We usually get water once a day and food every couple of days."

I put my hand to my chin in thought. If this 'General Will' needed strong soldiers, I didn't really see the point in this 'test'. Perhaps Castile's guess wasn't quite right, but something said he wasn't too far off base either. It made a bit of sense considering the type of people that we knew were down here. Military officials from Amestris. An Alchemy prodigy. The head of an Alchemy research facility. Though that left me with another question. Why was Castile here? He didn't seem like he had anything special to offer. Maybe he just got caught in the crossfire when they got Aria. Or maybe he just insisted on going with Aria. Who wouldn't follow and protect their little sister?

I felt something tap against my head and narrowed my eyes, looking up. "What was that for?" I asked.

Castile shrugged. "You were thinking too hard about something."

"Yeah," I muttered, but my mind was already busy roaming onto its next subject of interest. There was no way I could rescue some people and not the others. But the group back at West City wasn't prepared for a rescue of this magnitude. I had to let them know somehow.

I smacked my forehead against my palm, realizing just how stupid I was. I dug into the inside of my jacket, unzipping the hidden compartment and fishing my gloves out. I could see the little wires spiraling across the fingers, but the wires looked tangled together, in a way that didn't seem natural. I picked at them and decided that I didn't know enough about technology to decipher their working condition.

"I don't suppose any of you know anything about wires and electrical equipment?" I asked, setting the gloves down in front of me.

Castile picked them up and turned them over a time or two, moving the wires around with his fingers. "Depends," he said, "What is this?"

"It's a listening device," I replied, pushing some of my bangs behind my ears. "My teammates use it to hear what's going on here, so I can help them find a way in. To rescue our soldiers." I put my head in my hands. "We had no idea there were this many people down here."

A hand on my shoulder made me look over to the left, where Aria was smiling at me. "Don't worry, Kylie. Castile is very good with electrical devices."

Castile gave a shy smile along with a light push to his sister's shoulder. "Not that good," he mumbled, farther inspecting the gloves. "But good enough to tell that the wires and the chip aren't connected correctly. The ends got tangled, causing some of the wires to disconnect from the chip and halting the signal they're supposed to emit."

Castile spent the next ten to twenty minutes, I would assume, fixing the gloves. By that point, I had become fairly restless and had reverted to walking absentmindedly back and forth inside of our cell. I was so lost in my own mind that I didn't even notice Castile calling out to me. It wasn't until Aria grabbed a hold of my leg and gave me a tug that I snapped out of it, falling to the ground.

"Sorry," I mumbled, "What is it?" I looked over at Castile who shook his head and put my glove back on the ground.

"There's no way for me to fix this. One of the wires twisted and snapped. I tried tying it back together, but that won't work, not if we want the signal to get out," he said, sighing in frustration.

"Shit," I whined, burying my head in my arms.

I heard the scuffle of someone's feet and two quiet voices that seemed to mingle together. I glanced up and saw that Aria was sitting in front of Madilyn, discussing something. Madilyn's eyes traveled over to me and I raised my brow. Propping myself up on my elbows, I asked, "What are you talking about?"

Aria turned to me and sat her hands on her lap, smiling sweetly. "I was just thinking; maybe if we could find a way out, we could go to your team personally and let them know about the people here. It's a lot more dangerous, and possibly slightly more complicated, but it's a much better idea than sitting here and waiting for the soldiers to come back. When they do, they'll take you away, Kylie, and then any chance we have of getting out of here will be gone."

"That still leaves us with the question of how do _we _get out?" I said.

"That's simple," Castile said, "We use alchemy."

For a second, I was confused, wondering how that would help. Then, I thought of all the ways basic alchemy would be useful in this kind of situation, but I wondered why they hadn't done it before.

"If simply using alchemy could get us out of here, how come you guys, or anyone else for that matter, hasn't done it?" I asked, shaking my head at them.

"They're usually too weak," Madilyn said, "Even when they first get here, there's a gas flowing through the vents that keeps your body from being able to perform alchemy. Since Aria here is such a good Medical Alchemist, she's able to keep her body from being poisoned by it."

"But if she can do that, why doesn't she just use alchemy herself to get you out?" the more I asked, the more confused I got.

Castile sighed, obviously aggravated. "Because! She's never studied alchemy before! Almost everything she knows about alchemy is medical. Plus, her transmutation circles never work out right."

"Well," I scratched my head, "Why don't you use your medical alchemy to clean Castile and Madilyn's systems and _they_ can use alchemy to get out?" I asked Aria.

"Castile can't use alchemy," Aria replied, flustering her brother, "And Madilyn lost her ability to do it a long time ago. That's why she's the head of a research facility."

Frustration bubbled up inside of me. There was something I was missing.

"Then, please, tell me how alchemy can be the answer, since you've just proven why it _isn't_," I said through clenched teeth.

Castile crossed his arms and gave me a smug look. "We have you now."

I was completely stunned, flabbergasted. "Eh?" was all I managed to say.

Aria crawled up to my side, throwing her adoring eyes up at me. "You're an alchemist! And ever since you came in here, I've been keeping your body clean. It should be no problem for you!"

Oh, but there was a big problem. I was sent on a mission before I could have any real alchemy training. Given Cousin Roy probably assumed this would be more of a business meeting as opposed to a search and destroy mission (or search and rescue maybe). The rules of alchemy were simple, anyone could do them. What lies within the rules are what makes it complicated. To transmute, say the bars in front of our cell, I would need to know what the bars were made of, and the chemicals that made that up, so I could take it apart. However, that was where my problem lied. I _didn't_ know what it was made of. Even if I did know, I had a slight problem with memorizing things like that.

They were all looking at me expectantly, and I felt my anxiety rising. Three pair of eyes stayed trained on me, only adding more to my stress. I quickly snatched up my gloves and put them on, tearing at the wires and tossing them to the ground. Standing in front of the bars, it felt like I was having a staring contest, though since the bars had no eyes, they would no doubt win. I felt a twitch coming on and cracked my knuckles, waiting for an idea to hit me.

A sudden rush of aggravation came over me, and I smacked my palms together. A tiny light emitted and I slammed by fists forward, seeming to touch nothing, and then landed a harsh kick to the bars. The two bars that my foot had come in contact with burst open, with the ones on either side bending towards the ones remaining. I stepped back and blinked with a questioning glance. I hadn't expected that to work. I was just venting.

"You did it!" Aria shouted, only to cover her mouth afterwards, realizing how loud she was. "Whoops. We need to be quiet; those guards could come around at anytime. Especially after the noise we were making."

I nodded and stepped through the bars, looking back to see Castile rubbing his hands against his arms. "Is it just me, or did it get really cold there for a second?" he asked.

I turned my back to him and giggled a bit. I forgot about that little side effect. I was just so used to the changing temperature that it didn't bother me much. Aria, Madilyn, and Castile followed me out, and we began guiding ourselves through a series of hallways. Whoever created the tunnels certainly must have loved mazes because that's what it felt like. It seemed like we were just traveling through some big maze. I was almost expecting to end up back at our cell. But we didn't.

"This plan sucks," Castile said as he decided to rest against the wall.

I put my forefinger to my temple and sighed. "I know, I know. What else can we do?" I asked.

After I asked, however, something hit me. I looked up above my head and saw one of the air ducts that were scattered around the tunnels. They weren't very big, maybe about three feet high and about two feet long. Any smaller and they probably wouldn't have worked so well with getting air this far underground.

"Aria," I called and she turned to me, "Do you think you could fit into that?" I pointed above my head.

She put her finger to her chin in thought and tilted her head. "I believe so," she answered. She may have been eleven, but she was definitely petite for her age.

"Those have to meet fresh air somewhere. If you keep traveling up it, you should reach the surface soon. I don't know where you'll turn up though." True, my plan was flawed. She'd have to find her way out of Creta and into West City on her own, and that could take quite some time.

"Wait, wait. No way," I looked over to see Castile shaking his head at me. "You're not sending my sister out alone. It'd be better if I go. I've been to that city before. What was it called? West City?"

I rubbed my eyes and held back another sigh. "Yes, Castile, West City," I said, "Maybe . . . maybe you _and_ Aria can go. It'll be a lot easier for me and Madilyn to try and navigate our way through, maybe try to get a headcount of just how many people we have here. Plus, I wouldn't want anyone going on their own, now that you mention it."

That settled it. I hoisted Aria onto my shoulders and pushed her into the duct. Using my special alchemy, I gave her a slight road map of any twists she and Castile may come across. Castile was a little more reluctant to be lifted to the duct, but he wasn't tall enough to do it himself. With a huff, I put my hands together and then aimed them at him, and he was shoved up into the duct. From there, it was up to them to go find help.

Once they were gone and on their way, Madilyn and I continued going through, basically just looking into the cells and counting the bodies we could see. Some of them weren't alive. Some of them we couldn't tell. So we just counted them all.

I was feeling sick after what felt like twenty minutes and had to rest against the wall, sliding down onto my knees. For once, I felt like my breathing was fine. My heart was only racing because of the disturbing sight, but my lungs weren't dealing with it. That was a good sign.

"Are you alright, darling?" Madilyn asked, coming up to me and crouching down.

"Yes ma'am," I said, finally relaxing a bit.

"Well, that's good. It would be no fun putting two weaklings out of their misery," the voice speaking didn't belong to Madilyn, and I shot my head up, looking frantically around. To my right, about eight feet behind Madilyn, I could see a man, somewhere in his late twenties, with a fierce look in his eyes. His black hair was short, but his beard was long and twisted. A mischievous smile played on his face, and I was to my feet in an instant.

Before I could react, however, I heard a strangled cry and looked towards Madilyn, only to find she was no longer there. A cracking sound came next and my eyes darted to my left, where Madilyn lay unconscious on the ground against the bars of one of the cells.

A million thoughts ran through my mind. That guy hadn't moved an inch, yet Madilyn had been thrown across the hallway. How was that even possible? No one moved that fast, and I wasn't about to take traveling at the speed of light a possibility. I studied him carefully, waiting for him to do something, which he never did. We just stood each other down.

Then, something came at me. I ducked and avoided it easily. But it was _what_ it was that caused my mind to turn to water for a moment. There was no object around for him to throw. He had thrown the_ air _at me. Looking at him, I spotted a transmutation circle beneath his feet.

"You're an Air Alchemist!" I shouted in disbelief.

Another gust of air came hurtling towards me and I clapped my own hands together, quickly gathering the air from my sides and focusing it forward, shoving it towards the mass coming towards me. Due to the impact of the air, both forces were neutralized, leaving only little pieces to go floating back in both directions.

"So are you, sweet cheeks," he replied.

My head became really dizzy after that. He was using Air Alchemy. How was that possibly? I knew it wasn't exclusive, but I also knew it wasn't very well known. Not the form I used anyway. So how . . . how did he know it? And how did he do it without touching his transmutation circle with his hand. When did he even have the time to get the transmutation circle without me noticing?

I put one hand to my head and held the other one out towards him, a gesture to keep him away. "I don't use mine to fight," I said, and forced myself into the karate stance that I'd learned from my brother.

Then, I was running towards him, being pushed back by the invisible force. I tried avoiding it several times, but he was too fast, sending another my way as soon as I finished off the one before. I grew tired quickly, and my head was still spinning. When I took a split second to grip my head, a shooting pain went through my stomach, and I fell to my knees. I clenched my hands around my torso, leaning my forehead against the cold ground.

I could feel him coming towards me, and I lifted my head up to get a general view of him. My eyesight was blurry, but I could make him out, about six feet away. I quickly slammed one hand against the space in front of me, clenching my fist for a brief second before opening it back up and pushing my hand out. A gust of air, not too much larger than my own fist shot forward, attacking the man's right knee. His balance became lost and he fell backwards, but I couldn't get up.

He did get up though, but he didn't come towards me. He actually took a few steps back. It was then that I felt myself being lifted up, but by whom I didn't know. I couldn't move, and my vision was hazy. I knew I was going to pass out any minute, or have a panic attack at least.

But I didn't get the chance. After only a minute (or at least, I think it was a minute) of being hoisted up in that position, I heard the sound of something breaking. I was dropped to the ground in an instant, and I saw the feet of my captors rushing towards a pile of brown smoke. I couldn't figure out if I should have been relieved or worried, but as soon as the first face from the crowd became visible, I felt myself relax, at least a little.

This time, when I found the breath I was taking wasn't going in, I merely closed my eyes and waited for the world to drift away. Yes, my body was panicking, but help was right in front of me. My mind didn't wait for the mental panic to set in, it just turned off, and like that I was out.

* * *

I woke up to a black ceiling and a very familiar smell. I crinkled my nose and lifted my arm to wipe at the crust in my eyes. The room was very dark, and I found an old, brown blanket on top of me. I lifted it slightly to sit up, but found that I was only in my underclothes and decided against it. My eyes then caught sight of a figure sitting beside me.

"Hey," I said, my voice cracking, "You two alright?"

The little girl nodded her head vigorously, though Castile only gave me a slight indication of his answer. "That's good," I tried smiling at them, but the pain in my chest stopped that immediately.

"What about you? Looks like you were banged up pretty bad?" Castile asked.

I shook my head slightly. "It's no big deal. This happens all the time." It wasn't a total lie. Chest pains and lung malfunctions were normal. Though, big, hairy, air alchemy guys beating the living pulp out of me was not so normal.

"I was afraid your body would react like that," Aria said, crossing her arms in a pout.

I ruffled her hair and smiled. "Yes, little miss all-knowing-doctor," I said, laughing, but I sobered up quickly. "Now that we've established that we're all alright . . . how's Madilyn?"

Aria's eyes grew wide at my question, gripping Castile's hand tightly. She looked so young, so innocent, so scared. And that scared me. Castile's face grew dark and he shook his head.

"She suffered quite a bit of injuries from that fight. When she woke up here, at the clinic, she had a heart attack." I knew what he was trying to say. Madilyn had died.

We got quiet after that and soon Castile and Aria left. They were replaced by two more faces, ones I had been dying to see all day. Or perhaps it had been more than a day. I wasn't sure anymore.

"Ed! Al!" I called to them happily, though quietly.

Ed sat down at the foot of my bed, leaving the chair for Al.

"Are you feeling better?" Al asked hopefully.

I smiled. "Yeah, a bit. What happened?" I asked, groaning as a pain came back into my stomach.

"Those two Creta kids found us. The small one was shouting about people in the tunnels, and well, we thought she was crazy at first," Ed said.

"But then the boy said something about you, Kylie! We had to believe them then." Al finished.

I laughed at their response, resulting in me clutching my stomach. Ed's smile at my response showed relief, but the one I was getting from Al just made him look plain happy.

"Stop smiling like that, Alphonse," I said, grinning from ear to ear.

Ed's smile fell and he raised his brow. "Kylie? Al's an empty suit of armor, remember? He can't actually smile."

"Brother's right," Al said, "How can you tell I'm smiling?"

By that statement, I knew I wasn't wrong; Al had been smiling. "I can just feel it," I muttered, a bit embarrassed to admit it. I'd had a few issues with 'feeling' things that weren't really physically visible, and I had been hoping it wouldn't be brought up in this case.

Both Ed and Al exchanged a puzzled look, but decided not to pursue the subject. They both stood up and said that I needed to rest and left me alone to my thoughts.

It was about an hour later when I got a call from Cousin Roy.

"Why didn't you tell me you had a heart condition?" he asked as soon as I picked up the earpiece to the phone.

"I'm sorry," I said into it, "it's not something I like to advertise."

He mumbled a few curses under his breath before relaying his next sentence. "That was careless of you, Kylie."

I nodded, and realizing he couldn't see it, responded with, "I know." We had a silent moment before I spoke again, "Do Ed and Al know? About my condition?"

"No. Not yet. I plan to bring it up to them once you are all-"

"Please don't!" I interjected, sitting up and causing my blanket to fall to my lap, making me shiver from the cold. "Roy, I know it's a big deal, and I know they need to know. But please, _please_ don't tell them yet. I'm begging you."

He seemed to put a lot of thought into it, and after a minute I heard his sigh of defeat. "Fine. But if it gets in the way of anymore missions, or if it becomes a problem, they will be told immediately."

I agreed without argument.

"And Kylie," Roy said, the anger in his voice becoming relevant again, "The three of you are to report back to Central, in my office _immediately _after your departure from the hospital. I am taking you off the Creta case."

After that, he hung up, leaving me to sit there in shock. He was removing us from the case. But he was letting me stay on the team. I sighed with both relief and bitterness, pulling the blanket back up over my chest. I was glad to still have a chance at becoming a State Alchemist, but I was also disappointed and furious for being taken off the case. I _needed_ to find out about the Air Alchemist.

At that moment, I knew what I really needed. I needed Madilyn's research.

* * *

**I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Reviews are welcome! Complaints (unless constructive) usually aren't, but I can't stop you. If you have any questions feel free to ask away!**

**Just a note, there is a lot more to the Air Alchemy than it seems right now. I get that it just seems like she's controlling it, but there's a lot more to it, and that will be explained later on, don't worry. And the whole 'Kylie can sense Al smiling' has a lot to do with the plot, so think about that. Maybe you wanna come up with some ideas on what you think is going on. Be my guest!**

**Thanks for reading, see you guys sometime in September!**


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